Trump directly implicated himself in potential tax crimes at the Trump Organization with an offer to pay school fees, report says
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Trump has been connected to the Trump Organization tax investigation, The Daily Beast reported.
A witness reportedly told investigators that Trump once offered to guarantee perks in lieu of taxable salary.
The Manhattan district attorney has not charged Trump so far.
A cooperating witness in the Manhattan district attorney's investigation into the Trump Organization told prosecutors that Donald Trump once personally offered to pay for perks in place of a taxable income, The Daily Beast reported on Friday, citing sources who heard the conversation.
The revelation could bolster any charges that prosecutors could bring against Trump as part of a case that his company and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been indicted in.
Manhattan prosecutors are investigating whether Trump Organization executives illegally took benefits without paying taxes on them and whether the company engaged in tax and financial fraud.
Earlier in July, prosecutors announced a 15-count indictment accusing Weisselberg and the company of facilitating a scheme where he would accept corporate gifts like apartments and tuition payments in lieu of higher salaries, thereby avoiding paying a chunk of taxes for both the company and its employees.
Two unnamed sources told The Daily Beast that they'd heard a June 25 interview between investigators and the witness, Jennifer Weisselberg, Allen Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law, in which she said Trump had personally guaranteed to pay school costs, including tuition for her children, rather than give a raise.
The outlet did not say how the sources were connected to the investigation. Jennifer Weisselberg's lawyer did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Charging documents that prosecutors filed earlier this month said Trump had personally signed tuition checks for Allen Weisselberg's family members. The 25-page indictment refers to the former president several times.
'Don't worry, I've got it covered'
Jennifer Weisselberg is said to have told prosecutors that Trump said he would pay for her and Barry Weisselberg's children's education instead of giving Barry a raise, the Daily Beast report said.
In previous interviews with Insider, Jennifer Weisselberg said that Allen Weisselberg would facilitate the payments and that the Trump Organization would give perks in lieu of raises as a way to control employees' personal lives.
According to The Daily Beast's sources, the agreement Jennifer Weisselberg recalled was made in January 2012 during a meeting at Trump Tower with her, Trump, Barry Weisselberg, and Allen Weisselberg. Barry Weisselberg, who was her husband at the time, is also a Trump Organization employee.
Jennifer Weisselberg told prosecutors that at one point in the meeting, Trump turned to her and said, "Don't worry, I've got it covered," the sources told The Daily Beast.
Investigators also asked Jennifer Weisselberg, who is in the middle of litigation stemming from her 2018 divorce from Barry Weisselberg, whether Trump was personally involved in the alleged scheme, and she said he was, sources told The Daily Beast.
The Manhattan DA investigation is ongoing
The Manhattan district attorney charged the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg earlier this month with 15 felony counts of scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, tax fraud, and falsifying business records.
The indictment included evidence indicating that Trump was personally involved in covering his employees' children's tuition payments. From 2012 to 2017, the indictment said, "Trump Corporation personnel, including Weisselberg, arranged for tuition expenses for Weisselberg's family members to be paid by personal checks drawn on the account of and signed by Donald J. Trump, and later drawn on the account of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust dated April 7, 2017."
Prosecutors said Weisselberg omitted the tuition payments from his personal tax returns even though he knew the payments "represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records."
Weisselberg and the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Trump slammed the investigation as a "witch hunt."
This month's indictment represents the first charges to come out of the Manhattan DA's three-year investigation into Trump's business dealings. But prosecutors have said the inquiry is ongoing, and legal experts told Insider that the charges may just be the tip of the iceberg where Trump is concerned.
"It's not going to be lost on Trump's lawyers that the government showed with this indictment how quickly they were able to put together what looks like a very solid case, considering how short a time they've had Trump and his company's records," said Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who was on the team that convicted the Gambino crime boss John Gotti.
The allegation that Trump personally signed the tuition checks is unlikely to shift Trump's personal exposure to the investigation, according to Randy Zelin, a former New York state prosecutor. Trump has already given speeches in which he has not challenged the underlying facts of the prosecutors' allegations.
Zelin said that if the case were to go to trial, Trump would likely admit to paying for employees' tuition but say he expected other people to make sure the tax payments were in order.
"It could be something as simple as 'Yes, of course, I agreed to have tuition covered as long as it's going to be done legitimately, and that's why I have accountants and CFOs and lawyers and, and professionals,'" Zelin, now a defense attorney at Wilk Auslander LLP, told Insider.
Investigators could also bring charges against other Trump Organization employees, many of whom prosecutors said received the same type of untaxed benefits that Weisselberg did.
"As prosecutors go through this evidence and threaten other company executives, they may not all be guys in their 70s" like Allen Weisselberg, Cotter said. "They might be in the prime of their life and they're going to think about the fact that they could go to jail for five, six, seven years if they get the wrong judge. Those are the guys that may have more motivation to cooperate."
Alan Futerfas, the Trump Organization's lawyer, did not provide a comment to The Daily Beast. Liz Harrington, Trump's spokesperson, did not immediately reply to Insider's request for comment.
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